Welcome to LFC Roy Hodgson (Officially Confirmed)

[SK]

enough from me now as I have to take my dad to hospital for brain surgery and this has been a distraction from that, sorry if y'all think im over egging the pudding but I just want LFC to survive the ****e ownership.

hope your dad will be ok mate

[ntto]

what i dont want in all this is for the academy to be changed. We FINALLY have the right coaches in place (the two we poached from barca) and if they left we'd knock ourselves back 5 years again

[Mostar]

Watched the interview and he is an incredibly decent man who seems to recognize the enormity of the job and his responsibility.
What I resent is not him (who wouldn't take the job?) but the fact that the Managing Director is spinning his appointment, and telling fans to get behind the manager as a way to silence deserving criticism of the way the club is being run into the ground. So, if you get behind the manager, it feels de facto that you're just doing what you're told and that you're obedient to the will of the Board.

Roy himself is not the problem and I hope he can deliver results on the pitch that take my mind off of the feeling that Management of Liverpool Football Club seem to be constantly lying to and manipulating the supporters. Nothing will erase the feeling of being lied to, but I feel softened toward Roy himself, who seems a decent guy who landed a dream job. Fair play to him; I hope he can deliver and I hope we are sold by August 31.

I just wish I didn't feel like everything Purslow and Broughton did and said was a condescending slap in the face to the history of the club and the people who want to see it competing for top players and honors.

I had the same impression of him. Seems truly honest and genuine fella and like that about him. Certainly wasn't my first choice but he definitely deserves our support. Hope he does well for his and our sake..

[Craig_H]

hope your dad's will be ok mate

Ditto. Some things are more important than football.

[Scratch]

I think you'll find that i tend to opt for the 'each to their own' script more, nowadays

Ah, you're just mellowing in your old age.

[Mattshark]

I raise my latte to you

Now that is inexcusable and an abuse of good coffee (unless it is starbucks when it is **** coffee anyway).

[Craig_H]

Ah, you're just mellowing in your old age.

[Vermilion]

http://www.football365.com/story/0,1...238693,00.html

So it has come to this for club and country.

Liverpool, the country's biggest club at the onset of the 1990s, has been reduced to hiring their new manager from London's fifth biggest club.

Meanwhile, the England job has become such an unattractive proposition that - even after their announcement that Fabio Capello's position is currently under review - the FA have been denied a hearing by a 62-year-old who spent half of the last decade managing those giants of the international game, Finland and the United Arab Emirates.

The mighty have truly crashed.

Denigrating Roy Hodgson is not a pleasant undertaking but sentiment ought not to distract from the realisation of what his appointment represents for Liverpool.

It is a safety-first, reduced-status, low-budget, low-expectation underwhelming appointment that speaks trenchantly of just how dramatic and drastic the club's decline has been under the disastrous ownership of Tom and Jerry.

Their last managerial appointment, made five years ago, installed a two-time victor of La Liga. His predecessor was France's national coach. In comparison, Hodgson's managerial record is merely patchy - or, in football-speak, mid-table. His only champion achievement was 20 years ago in Sweden. He worked a minor miracle last term in guiding Fulham to the UEFA Cup final but his career had been stuck in a decade of decline managing Scandinavian and international minnows in the long years before his arrival at Craven Cottage.

In 25 years of management, the only club managed by Hodgson that can be regarded as the equal of Liverpool's standing are Inter Milan, with whom he spent 18 months at the end of the 1990s. After subsequent stints with such powerhouses as Viking, Udinese and Copenhagen, it's no wonder he has apparently said yes to Liverpool without a moment's hesitation. Is it cruel to surmise that he probably cannot believe his luck?

Hodgson's appeal for Liverpool is equally obvious and equally self-depreciating. As nothing in his record indicates he should be considered the man to deliver the club's first title in 20 years, the conclusion has to be that he has been pursued for his ability to apply a steady hand through choppy waters. His remit probably does not go any further than to replicate his big-value-for-little-money achievements at Fulham.

The ambition of finishing first has been wiped out. They might even have given up on finishing fourth. In the appointment of a man who takes his summer holidays in Wales, Liverpool have settled for being average. As the club searches for new owners and new investment, stability and an upper mid-table finish will have to suffice. Without that investment and change of ownership, it's all that can suffice.

If that sounds overly negative then try to make the argument that Hodgson's appointment is any way progressive. Is he the man to persuade Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard to remain at the club (if that is, the club can afford not to sell their prized assests)? Probably not. If Liverpool wanted that man, then they ought to have appointed Kenny Dalglish. Could Gerrard have turned his back on a true Liverpool legend during his hour of need? Could Torres? Rejecting Hodgson's quiet, steady-as-she-lists revolution will not be much of a wrench in comparison.

Yet, regardless of the outcome of his talks with Gerrard and Torres, Liverpool fans can expect Hodgson to bring a welcome sense of calm and order to the dressing-room and beyond. There will be no out-of-school press briefings, no mutterings of discontent, no hand-wringing about promises not met.

Hodgson's style is placating and persuasive. If he repeats his miracles of Fulham then maybe, just maybe, Liverpool could challenge for a top-four spot. Constrained by such a limited outlook and a limited budget, Hodgson's appointment does make sense. The best and worst of the matter is that he is the right man for the wrong time.

Pretty much spot on as to where we are now as a club.

[Matt]

Errr, yes they did.

Jesus. Whilst it's obvious that the majority of Liverpool fans aren't exactly overwhelmed with this appointment, the unrelenting crusade against Roy that a few seem to be on already is utterly ridiculous (although that would be perfectly fair if it was Jose Mourinho I must add). He's here now, it's time to get behind him.

Well said

Just saw the press conference, on again at 4:30 ssn

He does come over well but mark my words if he has a run of poor performances how many of you here will be all over him like a rash?

enough from me now as I have to take my dad to hospital for brain surgery and this has been a distraction from that, sorry if y'all think im over egging the pudding but I just want LFC to survive the ****e ownership.

Woy is a nice fellow, I hope he can be a winner...

YNWA

Hope your dad's okay mate.

Now that is inexcusable and an abuse of good coffee (unless it is starbucks when it is **** coffee anyway).

[BrooklynRed]

I had the same impression of him. Seems truly honest and genuine fella and like that about him. Certainly wasn't my first choice but he definitely deserves our support. Hope he does well for his and our sake..

We should be running the club, mate!

[Mostar]

[michelmas]

Good, balanced opinion piece from Guardian:

A legacy of the Bill Shankly era is that a Liverpool manager is expected to double up as priest, community leader and father figure at an institution that retained its family feel until two American speculators took it for a ride. The bonds are still there, under crushing corporate debt, but Roy Hodgson ought to be spared the cult of the leader.

The Kop could grumble at Hodgson's arrival on Merseyside only if they think Liverpool needed a Hollywood gesture to end a 20-year wait for their 19th league title and restore them to the Champions League. What they need is 34 years of experience at club and international level and a restoration of the side's forthright spirit. By the end of the Rafael Benítez reign one of the game's great clubs had adopted a kind of mechanical pragmatism designed to destroy the opposition's plans rather than impose their own.

Anfield's regulars were suffering but were too loyal to complain. They filed out through the Shankly Gates bored. It was inimical to Liverpool's followers to see their heroes win games by calculation alone. They revered Benítez for the 2005 Champions League win in Istanbul but could recognise the creeping joylessness of his football and his apparent inability to derive any pleasure from a goal.

Assuming the deal goes through, Hodgson's Liverpool will get back on the front foot. They will assert their pedigree. Nullifying the opposition will not be their religion. This is the first step out of the darkness for a side who finished seventh in the Premier League and now face a second Europa League campaign. Some will shout that keeping Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres, Javier Mascherano and Pepe Reina is the real first step to a renaissance and they would be right, except that those stars may be persuaded to stay only if they think Liverpool will recover their old identity and stop playing chess.

High on Hodgson's to-do list will be a purge of all the obscure shadow men brought in by Benítez during a carnival of talent speculation. Clearing out the no-names and nearly men is a vital task which Hodgson has performed already at Fulham. This will lighten the wage bill, provide money for acquisitions and offer chinks of light to a marginalised academy, the finishing school for Michael Owen, Robbie Fowler, Steve McManaman, Jamie Carragher and Gerrard.

A widely expressed doubt is that Hodgson's main skill is reviving the careers of discards and journeymen rather than dealing with household names, which would be news to Internazionale, who hired him to coach a team sporting Roberto Carlos and Paul Ince.

At Fulham he turned capable players into good ones by vigorous pattern-of-play work on the training ground. "Width in attack, depth in defence" was one of the first lessons he was taught. Liverpool will advance with pace and ingenuity but defend resolutely. His Fulham back five were a marvel of consistency achieved through familiarity. Mark Schwarzer, John Pantsil (a figure of fun at West Ham, but now a World Cup quarter-finalist with Ghana), Aaron Hughes, Brede Hangeland and Paul Konchesky were serial over-achievers. Hangeland's arrival from Norway displayed Hodgson's eye for an undiscovered talent: a virtue to be appreciated at a club £350m in debt.

So Liverpool have taken the sensible course of not chasing Marcello Lippi or Frank Rijkaard but hiring a sage who understands every nuance of the English game and will perform expert surgery on a bloated squad. Nor was a punt on a young manager advisable at this point. "There's no question in my mind that an experienced manager who retains the passion and enthusiasm of his youth is going to be arguably a better manager than the energetic youthful one who doesn't have the experience," Hodgson said before Fulham's Europa League final.

From boardroom chaos, miraculously, comes an appointment straight out of the old Liverpool school of wisdom.

[Frenchie]

Thanks guys

Just heard from the National hospital in Queens Sq London, admission delayed until tonight, so more time to be admonished by you kind folk, thanks for the kind words, I gave up my career to look after dad after mum died, Im more or less retired now and emmigrating to Mexico asap.

I suppose my harsh views on Woy is that after so long in the game he has achieved nothing apart from this dream job.

My issues are the yank ****s have forced this on us, I wanted one more year for Rafa as it meant so much to him and he took such pride in building the club from the youth upwards, he deserved another season imho.

The protest whilst sounding anti Woy is really anti owner/management who have sacked Rafa and brought Mr Nobody in whilst increasing the debt and no doubt milking extra interest from their holding co.

Im sure Woy is a nice chap and did well in the 80's in Scandiland but he is not the man to replace Rafa again imho.

No ambition begs the future, why replace a great manager with the winner of the Danish supercup albeit 15 years ago?

I may have been a bit aggressive because of a bit of family worry sorry again

[Frenchie]

Watched the interview and he is an incredibly decent man who seems to recognize the enormity of the job and his responsibility.

What I resent is not him (who wouldn't take the job?) but the fact that the Managing Director is spinning his appointment, and telling fans to get behind the manager as a way to silence deserving criticism of the way the club is being run into the ground. So, if you get behind the manager, it feels de facto that you're just doing what you're told and that you're obedient to the will of the Board.

Roy himself is not the problem and I hope he can deliver results on the pitch that take my mind off of the feeling that Management of Liverpool Football Club seem to be constantly lying to and manipulating the supporters. Nothing will erase the feeling of being lied to, but I feel softened toward Roy himself, who seems a decent guy who landed a dream job. Fair play to him; I hope he can deliver and I hope we are sold by August 31.

I just wish I didn't feel like everything Purslow and Broughton did and said was a condescending slap in the face to the history of the club and the people who want to see it competing for top players and honors.

[Frenchie]

hope your dad will be ok mate

Ditto. Some things are more important than football.